Inhabited lands

Aweti

Other namesAwytyza, Enumaniá, Anumaniá, Auetö

Where they are

How many

MT

192 (Siasi/Sesai, 2014)

Linguistic familyAweti

Location

The Aweti still inhabit today the place where Von den Steinen encountered them at the end of the 19th century: the region bordering the backwaters, brooks and pools forming the Tuatuari stream in a stretch of tall forest separating the latter from the lower Kurisevo, around 20km south of the Leonardo Post (Apakwat, "river otter den", in Aweti). They therefore occupy the heart of the Upper Xingu area, which favoured their position as intermediaries within the network of exchanges that they seem to have held in the past.

They usually relocate their village(s) every 15 to 30 years, always remaining within the same area in a diameter of a few kilometres (although they at least once occupied the left shore of the Tuatuarí river, where they recall in particular a village called Ajkulula). However, the main fluvial route to the villages was always the Tsuepelu port on the Kurisevo river, mentioned by von den Steinen and still in use today. Most of the former villages still recalled or visible today are located on the straight path linking Tsuepelu to the current small bathing port on the Tuatuari.

The current main village, Tazu’jytetam ("village of the small fire ant"), is located around 200 meters from the Tuatuari and approximately 7 km from Tsuepelu. Paths through the forest connect the village to the Leonardo Post to the north and the Mehináku village to the south. Since 2002, a new village has been created, inhabited by an extended family and their associates, also situated on the right shore of the Tuatuari, about 16 km to the north of the main village, close to the Leonardo Post.

Maps frequently locate the Aweti village erroneously, close to the southern border of the Xingu Park, more or less where the current Mehinaku village is found. This mistake may have arisen during the period when the Mehinaku lived close to the Leonardo Post to the north of the Aweti.